Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 bloodreavor Oct 22, 2014 14:52:49	So starting a new game this saturday and looking to flesh out my character   i have though up a cool concept to mash up the above classes, my only problem is that i dont have a phb and can only use the the guides from this site, and basic rules to build the character.   I have been allowed a custom background of field medic/ ex soldier   i am allowed to use the standard array for stats  and am currently debating between alternate human and half orc for the race   thinking dualweilding with heavy armor, shape change later   any advice you could give me   looking for more flavour then min maxing...
#2 bloodreavor Oct 23, 2014 11:23:55	i thought the plus to hit was a nice synergy for when you finally start wild shaping, prolly wont take enough levels in cleric to be able to give it my group i know barbarian and druid of the moon work great but wanted to keep all the divine spell casting plus i thought there could be a nice character story behind the merging of the classes...   is it worth picking up a combat feat or form early, would ranger be a better multi class?   look for a tanky type striker, just want to know if the wild shape is worth it, and does putting it off much matter?     haven't played 5e and want to know opinions from other players who are better at theory crafting or have played a wildshaping druid in 5e
#3 Gruff_Ironfist Oct 24, 2014 8:03:49	We've played the entire starter set adventure and the first chapter of dragon horde. Our characters are 5th level without multiclassing. Three of them might be interesting to you.   Druid 5 Uber sauce all around as "tank", because wildshape returns each short rest (renewal resource), and damage to his forms is "free." Meaning it isn't real HPs. He likes to get hit, because it prevents allies from taking real damage. Thus, his wildshape is a quasi-proactive form of healing in a sense. Once he hit 4th level, he can assume forms with a swimming speed, which opens up the mighty Giant Octopus with huge HPs and an attack the auto-grapples a foe if you hit (giving massive benefit to allies attacking it). Good for fights where you plant yourself in one place vs. lots of foes. He is absolutely dying to get to level 6, which means CR 2 forms, like Giant Constrictor Snake with more HPs, grapple-hit, and better movement (without having to hold breath on land).   As "striker," he generally assumes form of either Dire Wolf (for pack tactics/advantage = near-guaranteed hit each turn) or Brown Bear for the two attacks. He's still somewhat tanky due to having a decent pool of those temporary form HPs, but not nearly as much as the Octopus.   He took War Caster as first feat, so he has advantage on concentration checks to sustain Barkskin (so his forms all have 16 AC). He casts Darkvision on himself which lasts without concentration, and transfers over to his forms that are missing darkvision (since it is a spell, and not racial darkvision). The only other spell he generally casts is goodberries. It is "guaranteed" HP healing without the variable of rolling, primarily used outside of combat (since it takes 1 action to eat one berry), but he passes them out to allies regardless... because you can revive an unconscious ally with them by squirting the berry in the mouth of a fallen ally (might require DM ruling if berries can be "eaten" when unconscious in this way). All other spells he prepares are ritual ones, so he can cast some utility spells without using up spell slots.   You can even use the form's hit dice to heal up the form's lost HPs during a short rest, should you be fortunate enough to end the fight and still be in your form. It's a nice way to extend the form's life into another fight. And resting in such a manner will also giving you back 2 more uses of wild shape, all the while you are still in a shape from the previous combat (i.e., kind of like a free 3rd shape at that point).   Now that he has 3rd level spells, we enter the territory of Conjure spells, where he can summon 2 more Giant Octopus creatures, then bonus action shape change into one himself. It's like mirror image, except they all attack and have massive HPs. Talk about tanky! Or... when you won't be hit by area attacks, you can summon eight CR 1/4 constrictor snakes. You don't care about their low AC, because you now have 8 creatures that can (attempt to) grapple/restrain 8 foes, or take turns to "ready" constrict attacks on one or two big foes that might try to break out of grapple (wasting his turn even if he does, as the other 7 snakes try to re-grapple). And they have 104 HPs across them, which is nicely spread out in 13 HPs each, which can often result in "excess damage" situations to your benefit (a big hit of 20 points from a foe to a snake is 7 points of "wasted" excess damage). Your PCs can sit back and fire ranged attacks with impunity at the restrained foes. If any snakes survive, bring them into the next room/fight. It doesn't say they are smarter than normal beasts per say, but it does say they are "fey spirits" taking the form of beasts, and that they obey your commands (without suggesting they are somehow limited in understanding commands). But tell them to "keep all enemies constricted at all times" seems reasonable enough. DM's call.   Alternatively, the druid can cast Call Lightning, bonus action shift into a Giant Spider, climb up a wall out of reach, while blasting foes every round with the sustained lightning spell. Not too shabby.   Next feat will be Resilience/CON to improve concentration checks, and 3rd feat will be Sentinel feat to protect allies a bit (by giving foes a bite every time they attack an adjacent ally) and/or be more sticky (drop foe speed to 0 if they try to leave your reach, when you hit them with OA). 4th feat will be Observant so he can read lips from far away while flying around as an eagle in the sky.   He was an elf, specifically so he could have Fire Bolt cantrip (vs. Trolls) and the Longbow proficiency and high DEX (for times when he is out of wild shape forms). He chose the Urchin background to get Stealth proficiency, which carries over into any forms that lack that skill, which is very nice.   All of the above being said, the Druid feels more tanky than striker for sure. But we could care less. It makes up for it with massive utility. Giant Badger burrow of 10-ft. per turn is a nice way to create tunnels for you and allies to move about underground (grin). An innoculous house cat walking around and eavesdropping on conversations.   And finally, all of this depends on how many "short rests" your gaming table has. If you end up with almost no short rests, it certainly reduces the Druid's effectiveness.   As far as multiclassing, I strongly recommend against it. Druid needs to be pure class to get the next tier of CR forms as soon as possible! Especially moving towards Druid 10 when you get elemental forms. Personally, after that point, I see a big wildshape void between Druid 10 and Druid 18 (beast spells, casting spells while in beast form). So I could see doing Druid 10 first, then doing 10 levels of some other class, if you really wanted to multiclass. But Druid 18 (beast spells) and 20 (unlimited shapes) seem insanely powerful to me (not to mention access to the higher level druid spells), so I probably wouldn't give any of it up.   Ranger 5 This one surprised me as to how effective a tank/striker he was (and he can cover traps/locks too!). 21 AC (and 24 AC vs. one melee attack per turn). When an ally casts Shield of Faith or Haste on him, you can add +2 more AC on top of that. Two feats are Medium Armor Master and Defensive Duelist. Defense fighting style, and uses Scimitar and Shield. Variant Human, 27 point buy (str 10, dex 16, con 13, int 10, wis 16, cha 8). Half-plate medium armor. This combo lets him stay stealthy, yet have the AC on par with full plate. He gets 2 attacks per turn, 1d6+3 damage each, and can add another +1d8 once/turn (colussus slayer) and +1d6 once/turn (hunter's mark). Not as much damage as our wood elf rogue, but very good damage regardless. His problem is concentration checks, so he doesn't use hunter's mark much yet, but eventually he will once he grabs War Caster and Resilience/CON.   He casts Darkvision on himself, Goodberry and Pass without a Trace (for group stealth).   Urchin background, trained in Investigation, Nature, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Survival, Thieves' Tools, Disguise Kit.   Barbarian 5 The bear totem + rage + reckless + great weapon master (greatsword) makes this guy a tank/striker, but only when he is raging. He can get a free swing when he drops foes, and can also add huge +10 damage via the feat (and offset the attack penalty with reckless). And reckless isn't that big a deal to him while he's raging and soaking 1/2 damage anyway. It's a win win. HOWEVER, and it's a big however, he gets hit... and it is his "real" HPs being taken away, however small it ends up being. This isn't the case with the druid's form HPs, so we end up using the Druid to tank as much as possible.
#4 Undrhil Oct 23, 2014 23:23:00	The problem you will run into is that Druids *do not* wear metal armor, which most heavy armor is.  So, you will want to put some points into DEX and have medium armor, which can more easily be fluffed as being non-metal.